2 Held in Plot to Poison Politicians With Radium

By JOHN T. McQUISTON

Published: June 14, 1996

HAUPPAUGE, L.I., June 13—
Two Long Island men were arrested today and charged with planning to use radioactive material to assassinate several Suffolk County officials and political leaders.

The Suffolk County District Attorney, James M. Catterson, said the targets of the conspiracy included John Powell, chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Committee; Fred Towle, a Suffolk legislator, and Anthony Gazzola, chief investigator for Brookhaven.

Mr. Catterson, a Republican who was said to have been one of the targets, said the plot was "something out of a novel, involving an individual obsessed with hatred for mainstream political figures."

The two who were charged are John J. Ford, 47, of Bellport, L.I., a former Suffolk County court officer and president of the Long Island U.F.O. Network, and Joseph Mazzachelli, 42, of Manorville, L.I., who was described by Mr. Catterson as having a criminal record for a series of burglaries and someone "well known to investigators" in his office.

Mr. Mazzachelli and Mr. Ford, whose organization has accused the Government of covering up sightings of unidentified flying objects, were arraigned this afternoon in Suffolk County Criminal Court in Central Islip on charges of second-degree conspiracy to commit murder. They were denied bail.

Mr. Catterson said Mr. Ford had tried to solicit people to spread radioactive material on the seats of the cars of his intended victims, strew it about their homes and place it in food, like sugar, and in tubes of toothpaste, in the hope that they would contract incurable, fatal diseases.

"And if that were not successful, other things were contemplated, including the use of firearms," Mr. Catterson said.

He said undercover agents from his office became aware of the plot when Mr. Ford approached certain people, whom he did not identify, to carry it out.

Mr. Catterson said investigators were trying to determine how and where Mr. Ford had obtained the canisters of radium and the cache of weapons.

Mr. Catterson said that Mr. Powell, the Republican chairman, knew of Mr. Ford, but that Mr. Powell had told investigators that he had never had any contact with Mr. Ford and could not imagine why he or Mr. Mazzachelli, whom he said he did not know, would want to harm him.

Mr. Powell said he first learned of the plot late Wednesday afternoon, and that he listened to tape recordings in the District Attorney's office saying that he was to be killed on Friday.

The District Attorney declined to say how the tapes were made, but said people approached by Mr. Ford in the plot had helped record the conversations.

He said Mr. Ford said on the tape that a gunman had waited outside Mr. Powell's home two weeks ago to shoot him, but that the gunman left when he did not return home.

"What really upset me is when Ford said on the tape, 'If you got to take out the kids to get him, do it,' " said Mr. Powell, who has three children.

Mr. Towle, the Suffolk legislator, said he was shaken and concerned when investigators told him of the plot this morning.

"They told me these men planned to put the radioactive dust particles in the air-conditioner vents in my car so I would be exposed over a period of time," he said. "And when I learned they had nearly 50 guns and other weapons, I began to take it very seriously."

Michael Holland, division director of the Federal Department of Energy nuclear program at Brookhaven National Laboratories, said that the lead canisters contained radium, but that no radiation had leaked from them and that residents living near Mr. Ford had been in no danger.

Mr. Holland, who joined Mr. Catterson at an afternoon press conference in the District Attorney's office here, said that if the canisters had been opened and the material had been ingested or inhaled, there would likely have been long-term ill effects, like radiation sickness or cancer. He said radium had been used over the years for diagnostic purposes and in industry, dating to the 1940's, as an instrument enhancer.

"It is a controlled material, and it's still too early to tell how these two men got their hands on this material," Mr. Holland said.

Mr. Catterson said that the plot went "way beyond political dissent and debate." He said there was no indication that the suspects were members of a militia, saying that there is no known militia activity on Long Island.

"But that doesn't stop individuals from harboring a particular political view that advocates doing things against the government that we don't approve of," he said. "This type of thing is potentially a very dangerous and lethal threat."